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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAgenda Statement 1984/12/04 Item 10 COUNCIL AGENDA STATEMENT Item 10 Meeting Date 12/4/84 ITEM TITLE: Ordinance,0 y Suspending Sections 19.14.581 through 19.14.589 for Three Months and Transferring the duties of the Design Review Committee to the Planning Director during this interim period SUBMITTED BY: City Attorneys` '` (4/5ths Vote: Yes X No ) This ordinance would suspend the current operation of the Design Review Committee until the Council can either find qualified City residents to replace non-residents or come up with an alternative for design review. RECOMMENDATION: Place Ordinance on First Reading and Adoption BOARD/COMMISSION RECOMMENDATION: N/A DISCUSSION: In the recent election the voters chose not to approve a proposed amendment to the City Charter which would have explicitly allowed non-residents to serve on Council-appointed boards and commis- sions. We are, therefore, left with the language of the Charter which states in Section 602 that if any member of a board or commission "ceases to be a qualified elector of the City, the office shall become vacant and shall be so declared by the City Council". This creates an immediate problem with the Design Review Committee which is scheduled to meet to consider projects on December 6. One member of the Design Review Committee, Norm Williams, has recently resigned and of the four remaining members, two reside outside City limits. It is our direction to take all steps necessary to implement the will of the voters as expressed in the recent election and at the same time provide the City with the same high quality of design review that it has enjoyed in the past. The Planning Department is now conducting an extensive recruitment effort in order to determine whether it is possible to come up with qualified candidates who are also residents of the City. Advertisements have been placed in professional journals to alert the archi- tectural community to this need . While efforts in the past to find a qualified pool of candidates who are also residents of the City of Chula Vista have been unsuccessful , it is hoped that a more intensive effort to identify candidates will succeed this time. If it does, we would be able to keep the Design Review Committee in its present format and allow our present ordinance to go back into effect at the end of the three month interim period. If it does not, we will have to come up with some other alterna- tive to our present system for design review. Form A-113 (Rev. 11/79) Agenda Item No. 10 December 4, 1984 Page Two Our proposal for the interim period is to assign the duties of the Design Review Committee to the Planning Director. The Planning Director could then use volunteers to help them in this area. We would request present members of the Design Review Committee to volunteer for this work. We feel that this can only be an interim solution because we do not want to circumvent the will of the voters. If we are not able to come up with qualified candidates who are residents of the City of Chula Vista to serve on the Design Review Committee, we will have to come up with some other alternative for design review. Possibilities might include hiring someone with an architectural background to work as an employee of the Planning Department- or a three-member Design Review Committee. There may be further alternatives which we have not as yet considered, but we would first await the results of our recruitment efforts and report back to Council on whether some new procedure is necessary. This urgency ordinance would only apply to Design Review of projects under the City's jurisdiction. It would not apply to projects under the Redevelopment Agency because that is a state agency and is not bound by the City Charter. Nevertheless, if we are able to find qualified candidates who are City residents, we would intend to recommend that they replace current members of the Design Review Committee to review all matters whether Redevelop- ment or City related. FISCAL IMPACT: N/A GO'